Jason Byrne

Irish comedian, Jason Byrne, returns to Australia this month with his anarchy-packed new tour Jason Byrne Peoples Puppeteer. Touted the funniest and most successful solo act in the history of the esteemed Edinburgh Festival Fringe where he has performed for the past 14 years as one of its top sellers. The hilarious Byrnes is also a regular on the Melbourne International Comedy Festival televised galas and UK shows such as Live at the Apollo. After completely selling out shows around the country in 2011, he tells BBM’s Rachel Trickett why he’s so excited to be back with his brand new show.

So, you’re back in Australia for your new tour Peoples Puppeteer from next month. Are you excited?

I am yes. It’s a place that I love going to. It’s holidays, there’s no other way of looking at it. I‘ve got to do a show there that I bring there every year. I only have to do an hour, and when I’m on tour in in Britain and Ireland I tend to do two hours, so I should be totally fine. So that’s why it’s a holiday, obviously Australia is just beautiful, the heat, the culture the fans. It’s great I love going there, I’m actually really looking forward to it, it’s the only place I actually look forward to gigging. Ireland in January and February’s been freezing. I just need some fucking heat. My face actually looks weathered.

So you’re just going for a sun tan really?

Ha, Exactly.

What are your plans while you are in London?

I’m doing a panel show with Paddy McGuiness, he’s hosting it. And Louis Walsh, Janice Dickinson that girl with loads of lip. It’s called A Mad Mad World and it’s just about the world, different stuff around the world, and we have to make it funny.

You’ve visited Australia quite a lot over the years. What’s your favourite thing about it and whereabouts do you like the most?

Well you see I love going to Melbourne because I get to go there for four weeks and I’ve got loads of friends there so that’s how I know that city really well. But then I love going to Sydney because I get to stay on Bondi Beach, and because in Ireland we stopped having fucking beaches and actually staying on the beach is unreal then I get to run up and down there. But I really like going to Perth. I love Perth. Just getting to look at all the rich people, just walking round, in all there lovely clothes. And then Adelaide is great because it’s kind of a little bit scary. You’re kind of waiting for someone to punch you, but they say ‘hello’, they don’t fuck you up so it’s great. So it’s a little bit like Ireland, it’s good fun. Australia’s just gorgeous, I could be here all day telling you what I love about the whole thing. It’s not in a recession like this shit hole and the end of the world.

What’s been your most memorable heckle?
Heckles can come in many forms. They can be shouted at you or someone could just get one up on you. Just recently in Ireland I asked a guy to get up on stage, and his mate said he can’t. I said ‘why can’t you?’ I mean he looked totally fine to me, and he said ‘I’m blind’. So I said ‘ok what’s your name?’ and he said ‘Rob’. And I said ‘so your names seriously Rob the blind man’ and they were all just laughing their fucking asses off at that. Then later on I did this stunt with a guy’s legs on stage, which is a very visual thing, so afterwards I explained to Rob what I had done because obviously he couldn’t see it. And when I had finished he said ‘thank fuck I’m blind’. That was the best heckle I think I’ve ever got. Trying to be cautious and nice around him and then he just got one up on me.

Do your wife and children find you funny?

Well, when I’m at home I’m not a comedian, I’m a father. I don’t walk around with a dickey bow and a microphone. I’m entertaining to my kids. I know how to make kids laugh. But my wife, she’s the one with the iron fist because she’s with them the most. So she kind of resents the fact that when I come home they’re like ‘oh dad, come play with us’. And the mother has to discipline them. Even though I have to as well, you can never discipline them as much as the mother. She’s the hard ass.

You currently have a globally available BBC Radio2 sitcom aired at the minute. Can you tell us a little bit about it, and where the inspiration for it came from?
We’re trying to do more of them and get them on TV. It’s great fun just about an Irish family living in London, it’s not really about anything. It’s just me getting into terrible situations like my life is anyway. But it’s really good.

You also did the hilarious hidden camera TV series Anonymous. Have you considered doing any more of these types of shows in the future?

It was great but it was very hard trying to get celebrities to do what you tell them because they’re not funny, they’re not comedians so they’re not naturally funny. It’s very hard to tell them to do something funny because they just say ‘no, I don’t want to do that’, but when I did anonymous myself with just me dressed up they were the best because it was like no holding back. So, if I were to do it again I’d just do me dressed up. I wouldn’t use celebrities again because they’re fucking useless. So hopefully I’ll do it myself again.

What’s the most embarrassing thing that happened to you recently?
My five year old told me to fuck off in McDonalds. That’s never a good thing.

Were there many people around?
Yeah. It was funny, he wasn’t doing it in a malicious way or anything but there’s nothing more embarrassing than your kid telling you to fuck off because nobody looks at the kid, they all look at you and go ‘that’s terrible, he must of taught him that’.

What is the inspiration for the Peoples Puppeteer and what kind of show can we expect?
Well you see this is the thing people always ask me ‘what are you going to do with the show?’, but like, you know, every comic has his own style. It’s like asking Billy Connolly, he’s just going to say ‘Erm, I’m gonna tell more fucking stories’. My thing was that last year my show was called Jason Byrne Cirque Du Byrne and firstly I had a kind of uniform on stage, so I was like, I have to keep the uniform so I said, right, I’ll try and keep the circus type travelling puppet thing. I said, look, I always get people up on stage to do stuff so just called it Jason Byrne Peoples Puppeteer. Every show I do I always get them up to do something with me so it’s like I control them. That’s where it came from, so I can keep me jacket and me old hat, haha. But yeah, I’m definitely excited about it. It’s going to be nuts.

By Rachel Trickett